The Beach Boys Story: In Their Own Words | Documentary

in an art form. He was able to organize his thoughts to a point where they are hypnotic but entertaining, meaningful and spiritual as well. Singing is an expression of you, of yourself, you know your feelings and, then, my brothers and I stay together because we are a family. three brothers and my cousin Mike, so we blended very well, very well, Al Jardine, Michaela, Carl Wilson, Brian Wilson, Dennis Wilson, those Timbers, in fact, now they slide me in there, now there are six and Listen on the album Pet Sounds this song called I was simply not made for these times, there were six of us singing.

Brian was somewhere between a hipster and uh and one of your famous British generals who was tough, he was tough, he demanded everything from everyone. players you know can play anything and Brian just had this symphonic group of amazing musicians to work with we experimented a lot with the musicians you know a lot it's all experimentation and I kept going and walking for about two months to get the album recorded they knew that he was a special guy musically and sometimes they would help him write something in a park, but it was all here in his head and he somehow communicated with all the players and sometimes, Brian, you can't do that. and then they play and I understand that it's pretty good, Brian, you know, it was great.

He would try to develop the arrangement to fit the song. The Melody, you know, would write to me and then try to get the arrangements around the Miller and we started getting reports about it. Ryan is doing something really special, guys, he really is, but we're in Japan because as soon as we got back we started listening to the material, I mean, I couldn't wait for us to come down. the studio didn't care about jet lag or anything like that, it didn't mean anything to him, but it was, it was humbling, we had to try really hard, he sees things, I don't think the rest of us see, you know, and here there are things which we certainly don't hear, so he is one of those special ones, he has a special receptor in his brain, Brian truly is the most talented musical person I have ever met.

I hate when they call him a genius because and they're right, but don't do that, it's too big a burden to carry on your shoulders, but he's so talented. I think genius just means intelligent. I don't think he really has anything. real meaning, it simply means that you are good at something. Genie is like you know Albert Einstein was a genius. Well, I think he was experimenting a bit at the time too. He told us that he was taking acid during California Girls, so, oh, he was very. Skeptical about doing any of those things that he looked at, he scanned it, anything that has to do with that kind of drug culture influence, part of that I think led to me getting a bad reputation for the quote-unquote first date. , I don't like pet sounds or anything at all.

You know, it's a complete lie because not only did I name the album Pet Sounds and go with Brian to pitch it to Capitol Records, but I sang on every song that was sung. I was very pleased with Tony too. Both of us. They both thought we really made a good album. Well, I couldn't understand why they didn't like it. I said, "This is good music," they said, but it's not commercial music, so they didn't release it a little bit late, a few weeks later. He said, "Okay, we'll release it," so they released it to the market and it didn't sell very well.

The faith of work was there. Everyone, we have Pet Sounds, by the way, we are going to publish Best of. Beach Boys volume one, can you believe it's so stupid? It's a strange thing, but I keep coming back to Pet Sounds. I mean, keep coming back to Pat Sounds here in my life and I'm going to ask what's up with these pet treats. It really is a good album, you know, it stood the test of time of course, but is it really that good of an album that you know how to listen to? Don't know. I was so inspired that I wrote a great album.

I knew people. I would like to, I knew they would. It took 20 years to go platinum. It was ridiculous and how long it took and yet at the same time it was regarded so highly. It is a work of art. Sonic art, vocal art that will last forever. it has everything it's really fabulous chord structures arrangements performance great songs to sing a lot of people are encouraged by it it grew immensely during that time and has been rewarded before now 50 years later he made something that sounds like me or you it opens the door for a lot people, especially for me, foreign, I was on my way to the recording session and I hadn't written the lyrics, my cousin Brian said, uh, you asked me to make up some lyrics for the Good Vibrations verses. up with the Good Vibrations part the chorus that says I'm picking up Good Vibrations she's giving me the buzz so I had that part down but I hadn't written the verse because it was 1966 and the flower power thing was going on The kind of hippie thing that was happening in California made me think in terms of a girl who was really into peace and love and all that kind of stuff and I just wrote this flowery verse.

I love the colorful clothes she wears and the The way the sunlight plays with her hair I hear the sound of a soft word, was inspired by the image of a girl who was a hippie girl who was in those times and in the peace and love and all that kind of stuff. You were trying to smile, but it never came out, this was too hard, so there were so many creepy things that were drugs, that were all these drugs and junk and people coming in and out with all

their

junk, it was like being high on acid.

The experiences he had I thought were unwise, but they happened and they certainly got him excited about taking drugs, LSD, marijuana and amphetamines. It opened my mind to new creative ways of writing songs and producing records and stuff, Brian. He had a bad experience with LSD, he asked me to get in the car and he wanted and shared his experience with me, but in reality he had seen himself fade away, he saw himself regress from you know what he was to a void to an absolute void afterward. . On the 24th or fifth trip around the block I asked him to let me get out of the car because I was getting really nervous.

I told Van Dyke Clarks. I asked him what this passage of lyrics really means. I told him quite frankly no. I know he says I have no idea, so for me I'm thinking, well, logically, we have an audience, we have a song, we were trying to portray something, don't you want to identify with that audience? Hey, they don't want to say anything. thing, but they create an image that, uh, I find that attractive. I was getting pretty far away at that point. What's happening? A building burned down the same day we were doing that across the street from the studio where we were making the fire tapes and I thought it was musical.

Musical musical witchcraft. I made the musicians wear fire helmets. I had a guy bring a bucket of burnt wood to smell the smoke in the studio. I mean, he was crazy. I remember hearing voices in my head, of course. to say we are going to kill you they are going to kill you you have two years to live we are going to sabotage your music we are going to kill your wife we ​​are going to shoot your entrants very very evil very evil The bad thing about the trip I think Brian um couldn't finish the smile project due to the severity of his emotional problems, which I think he was very irritated by drug use after you found out that you experienced some negative things with drugs, particularly LSD.

It wasn't the same anymore Thank you for many years It's difficult now Bring everyone together and bring them together Yes, it's difficult to get a rehearsal going, it's really something that really takes some time but I know it's like the group has a subconscious life too , you know, I continued living but I was very humble in that room, very humble, I was too afraid to leave my room because the voices in my head are going to say that they are going to kill me, maybe too afraid to leave it. my room in our case, that didn't stop us from creating, but it stopped the flow of hits, you know, until Good Vibrations was our biggest hit in the '60s, that was 19 at the end of 1966, so Kokomo didn't do it.

It was 22 years later. Yes, we still create and continue to make albums, but not the phenomenal success that we achieved in the early and mid 60s. Blondie and Ricky, I mean, Ricky Fatar is a phenomenal drummer. Blondie was an amazing guitarist and a great singer, and um, so he sang. They sang and played with us for a period of time. What was the motivation to start your own level? There was freedom from limitations and restrictions when working with Capital Records. I think there are probably moments of Grace that we've all thought well of, okay? We've had enough, you know, and we've had our share, you know, you know those things, but, wow, we've known each other for a long time, so when you grow up together, you accept each other, you know who you are and so on. you know, and having that mutual understanding, we just accept each other, you know, and there's really a great camaraderie in the group, you know in a very cool way, you know it's just there, it's just happening and we've been through a lot. things that you know together as people and so you know that kind of things create a bond, yeah and people and then it's you, so I guess that's part of the reason, the main reason is the music, you know, that's why We are together.

I know that in the family everything is analyzed, but I don't think I would want to do anything else, no, I don't think anyone else does, it's time, okay, but we are all growing more, so let's see what happens in the next years. I think the group will stay together for a couple of years and then I think the possibilities of doing other things will become more at least more apparent as an autopsy was planned today on the body of Dennis Wilson, the drummer of The Beach Boys, it was during an afternoon meeting aboard this ship that Wilson decided to go swimming and snorkeling from the dock.

We are here this morning due to the tragic loss of our Brothers friend Dennis Wilson, in a very big hearted way and we all love him very much and will miss him, it's hard to lose, so his brother and someone who had such a vital energy about him and uh, I just don't want to talk about it anymore, we're not breaking up. We know Dennis would like us to continue the spirit and tradition of the Beach Boys. Everybody has to have a little imprisonment to be able to understand that, you know, this is where we are.

I mean, if it were like that, I've been. I've been waiting for the right time to call you, that's what it is, you know, Dr. Landy, you were preparing to conduct part of a business transaction with his patient, yes, it's a fictional place, honestly, but interesting. . The thing is, we got bags full of letters from school teachers saying our class wasn't very interested in geography, but when they heard Aruba, Jamaica, Bermuda, Bahamas Warehouse, where are all these places where you're helping kids in all of the United States? children could relate to it through the music, which is quite fascinating.

We tried to get him to record that song with us. He was under the tutelage, so to speak, or under the spell, as some people would say, of Dr. Landy, the psychologist who governed his every move and um and we and Landy would let Brian record with us only if Landy could be the co-writer or co-producer. of the record and stuff and we had Terry Melcher as a producer now Terry Melcher produced the birds and Paul Revere In the Raiders he was very successful in what he did and that's why he didn't need the help of Gene Landy, so Gene kept him away.

What happened even though we made a video in Florida from Kokomo and Brian was in the video, but he wasn't. on the record and I wrote that song with Terry Melcher and John Phillips from The Mamas and Papas oh, does it make you sad that the Beach Boys are over? Did it make me sad, yes, yes, a little, my brothers? My brother died too, he died, yes, it made me a little sad, yes, well, my wife and I and my publicity agents met one day for lunch and they said, Brian, we think it's time to smile at any of the concerts and then we recorded it like an album and I said I was all for it, so I called my van, parked my friend, he came and we couldn't create a third movement, yeah, and then we took it to London like I said before.

He took it to the studio and it took us a month, a month, just to make the whole album. MyClub. His cousin Brian Wilson using all three. Yes. The three founding members of the band released

their

first single. Serpent in 1961. I think it was good. Then David Marks played. guitar on the first four albums, well, Al, you went off to college or something, yeah, you got out of high school, and then at the end we have Bruce Johnston, who joined the band, uh, I think on 1965. the new boy, the new boy, yes. oh, he was really proud, I mean, he was really proud to be a

beach

boy.

They would really be a very good group, they were in their time, they were probably one of the best groups in the whole business.